QB Shane Carden got knocked down a few times, but he and his Pirates got back up for a 65-59 win against Marshall on Friday in the highest-scoring game in C-USA history

GREENVILLE – Three days shy of one year ago, the East Carolina football team scored a touchdown in the final minute of regulation to send its game against Marshall into overtime.

Needing a victory to gain bowl eligibility, the Pirates couldn’t finish the job – ending their season in the most excruciating way possible. It’s a result coach Ruffin McNeill and his returning players have never been able to completely shake from their system.

Until Friday.

Given a second chance against the Thundering Herd in almost an identical situation – this time, with the roles reversed – ECU didn’t let the opportunity slip away.

South Brunswick's Terrell Stanley wraps up Marshall's Essray Taliaferro for one of his six tackles Friday

Quarterback Shane Carden drove his team 76 yards in the final 1:51 to tie the game on a pass to Danny Webster with four seconds left in regulation. Then, after a defense that had been abused all afternoon came through by forcing a decisive turnover in the second overtime, Carden snuck into the end zone from one yard out for a record-setting 65-59 victory at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

It was a win that meant so much more than just revenge, although McNeill finally admitted in the opening comments of his postgame press conference that “it was good keeping them out of a bowl.”

At 8-4 overall and 7-1 in Conference USA, the Pirates clinched no less than a tie for the league’s East Division title. And they did it in the most satisfying way possible.

When coaches speak about their players learning how to win, games like this are what they are talking about.

“We learned to never stop fighting, never put your head down,” said senior defensive end Michael Brooks, whose team could still earn a spot in next week’s C-USA Championship game with a Central Florida loss to UAB today. “We didn’t ride the roller coaster through the game. The ups and downs, we didn’t go through all that. We just kept it steady and came out with the win.”

That resolve was never more evident than after Marshall (5-7, 4-4) scored a touchdown with 1:55 remaining to take a seemingly insurmountable 52-45 lead.

Instead of panicking or raising the white flag in defeat, Carden calmly walked up and down his sideline confidently exhorting his teammates that things were going to be okay. He was just as calm and confident after three plays gained no yards, leaving ECU with a fourth-and-10 play at its own 24 with a little more than a minute remaining.

“That’s how we approach everything all season – focus, poise, with a chip on our shoulder but still routine plays,” said senior wide receiver Andrew Bodenheimer, who caught a 25-yard pass for a touchdown on the opening play of the first overtime. “Even though it was fourth-and-10, it was just a routine play, and we continued on from there.”

It was routine only in the sense that Carden’s game-saving 19-yard pass was caught by teammate Justin Hardy. The junior wide receiver caught 16 of them in the game to set a single-game school record, including two more on the final drive to set up Webster’s tying touchdown.

Vintavious Cooper scores one of his two TDs during a game in which he went over 1,000 yards for the season

It was one of three touchdown passes thrown by Carden, a sophomore who was 38 of 47 for 439 yards. He also ran for three scores. Vintavious Cooper, held in check for most of the game, got into the end zone twice and gained 19 of his 52 yards in the second overtime.

Like Carden and Hardy, Cooper will be back next season. So will defensive end Chrishon Rose and outside linebacker Derrell Johnson, the duo that combined to strip the ball from Marshall’s Essray Taliaferro and recover the fumble that set the stage for their team’s dramatic finish.

“They’ve been through some experiences,” McNeill said of his young players. “They’ve learned some things about enjoying the process, playing one play at a time, going to the next play. I’m looking forward to seeing them develop.”

It’s a process McNeill and his staff can afford to stand back and enjoy, because with 16 of 22 first-teamers from Friday’s Senior Day game listed as underclassmen, they won’t have to start over from scratch next year when it comes to teaching their players how to win.

As the Pirates showed against Marshall, they’ve already learned that lesson well.

ARRGHH!
Pirates didn’t give up and produced as exciting a finish as any I’ve seen. Need to win the bowl game this time and continue to recruit well.
Ruff has his naysayers, but the pundits had ECU 6-6 and 5-3 this year and Ruff certainly topped that.